Nino Panagia

Astronomer Nino Panagia (pronounced Pahn-ah-gee-ah)
was born and grew up in Rome, Italy. He earned his
doctorate in Physics at Rome
University in 1966, with a thesis on theoretical
models of massive stars. Soon afterwards he turned
his interest to the study of nebulae and stellar
winds.

In the late '60s and early '70s he held positions
at the Institute for Space Astrophysics in Frascati,
near Rome, and in Bologna, at the Institute
of Radioastronomy. During this time, he broadened
his interests from studies at optical and ultraviolet
wavelengths to include also work on the radio and
infrared properties of nebulae. He spent a year
at Cornell University,
collaborating with Yervant
Terzian and others, where he started a series
of model calculations of the far-infrared emission
from nebulae.

In 1979 he assumed leadership of a European team
that carried out observations of supernovae with
the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite.
This was the beginning of Panagia's long-term involvement
with supernova studies (and made him an observational
astronomer, in addition to his theoretical credentials).
His team's approach involved using observations
at many different wavelengths (spanning from radio
to gamma rays) to understand the nature of stellar
explosions.

In 1984 Nino came to the Space
Telescope Science Institute. From 1986 to 1995,
however, he also tried to be in two places at once,
since he was appointed Professor of Astronomy and
taught part-time at the University
of Catania (Sicily). Since 1995 he has worked
full time at STScI. His current Institute work is
involved with the Next Generation Space Telescope
project.

His research activity on supernovae led to the
first thorough study of the radio emission from
a supernova (SN 1979C, which is still being followed
with the Very Large Array radio telescope), and
the first detailed study of the new class of Type
Ib supernovae. Since the launch of HST, Panagia
has been involved in a detailed study of the supernova
in the Large Magellanic Cloud, SN
1987A, and its vicinity. This work led to determination
of a very precise distance to the LMC, which is
a fundamental step in the cosmological distance-scale
ladder.

When he is not doing astronomy, Nino listens to
Baroque music, spends time in the kitchen (where
he is a master of southern Italian cooking), gardens,
and ice skates at a nearby rink. During vacations
he can be found snorkeling in the Caribbean.